BP agrees to buy tractor-pulled beach-cleaning rigs for Gulf Shores

View full size (AP Photo/Dave Martin)Beachgoers watch booming operations in Perdido Pass in Orange Beach, Ala., on Sunday, June 6, 2010. Alabama booming operations are being ramped up with oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster hitting the coast.GULF SHORES, Ala. -- City officials on Monday convinced BP PLC that its tedious method of cleaning oil from south Baldwin County's beaches by hand was futile, and the oil company gave the green light to buy at least 10 tractor-pulled beach-cleaning rigs.

Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft said he became exceedingly frustrated with how BP's contractors were handling the cleanup, which began Friday afternoon when viscous globs began washing ashore.

"We decided we'd figure out a way to do it ourselves," Craft said.

So city workers began tinkering with equipment used to remove cigarette butts and bits of litter from its beaches and were able to modify it to scoop up even still-wet oil.

Craft said the city's intent was to run the machine over soiled beaches ahead of BP's labor crews, which were slow to arrive at cleanup sites throughout the weekend and, in at least one instance, left bags of the hazardous waste on a public beach overnight.

A high-ranking BP official arrived in Gulf Shores on Monday to gauge the city's process and told municipal officials to immediately order 10 more machines.

Including the tractors needed to pull the machines, spare parts and modifications that will enable them to collect anything larger than a dime, the cost of each, which BP is paying, is about $138,000, Craft said.

Contractors, hired by BP and overseen by the city, will operate the machinery, decontaminate them nightly and dispose of the waste.

The equipment will first be used to sift sand between the Florida state line and the Laguna Key subdivision, an estimated 20 miles. More will likely be added so that the effort can be expanded down the Fort Morgan peninsula, where permission will need to be obtained from the federal government and private landowners, the mayor said.

Ultimately, Craft said, the aim is for Baldwin County's 32 miles of beach to be scoured every two days or so for the duration of the spill cleanup.